Link things: March 29, 2010

Today’s links: A new gadget (we always like those!) some musings on metagenealogy and ideas on bringing genealogy home to your kids.

Gadget corner: Google street views have gone to the UK, reports ProGenealogists. Now you, or the virtual you, can “walk” your ancestors’ streets across the pond just by typing in the address. Very nice for those with UK locations in their past.

The Big Picture: James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star writes on Developing a MetaGenealogy. Yes, it is a big-idea post, so much so that I’m going to have to go back to it after choir rehearsal tonight to re-read it. Lots of interesting musings on what makes history and genealogy different, and what they actually share.

The Kid Angle: Lastly, I’ve been digging around for sites with ideas for turning genealogy into a kid-friendly activity. Somewhat to my surprise, my 8-year-old has been asking about my family history research, and it only recently dawned on me that she wasn’t just doing it to get a raise in her allowance.

Also, since my little one’s a Brownie Girl Scout, I was happy to find a couple of great suggestions for incorporating genealogy into two of the Brownie Try-It patches. I found information on the Listening to the Past Try-It here. (P.S., this is just a wonderful site in general if you’re a Brownie leader.) And here are suggestions from the AfriGeneas Juniors community on genealogy projects and the All In The Family Try-It. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a hands-on genealogy presentation for kids, so if anyone else has sites they like on this topic, I’d love to hear about them.